Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Going to sign off for a bit and run out and try to take some pictures of the little trouble makers.

Finally moved up to high speed but don't want to leave it just sitting here burning up bandwidth. Holy cow........high speed is like a whole new world for me. I don't know how we dealt with dial up for the last 10 years.

 

[gilavina]

Hello my friend! Good to hear from you! Life and birds over here are good, busy, but good.

Only 2 of those chicks I hatched in March are now still showing copper, it has covered in the rest of them.

I am glad that you are seeing nice beefcakes in the Birchens, I know that is something that you have been working on. Did you do any Blue Birchens this year?

I have black, blue and splash birchens. How many of each I can't tell you for sure, but know that in the second hatch I probably have about 30 I held back overall and I think I've held onto about 8 in the oldest group that are coloring in nicely. This year I have both birchens and coppers with lots of color. The two black birchen cockerels in the oldest batch are pure silver so far, so I'm really hopeful for the little tykes to color in correctly. I also believe my hunch is correct on those 2 blue and 1 splash hens I bought from Anna when she sold out of birds being pure silver. I have them with a really nice type birchen with some creamy gold coloring from being a split for silver and gold and all they chicks have come out pure silver and some have no coloring yet. I'm running several pens of birchens, but will take those chicks from this mating and work on a solid blue project if I have any worth keeping. I really need to get photo updates, but just feel behind on everything all the time. I've got family coming into town next week, so will probably have to wait til they are gone at least.

 

[gilavina]

Going to sign off for a bit and run out and try to take some pictures of the little trouble makers.

Finally moved up to high speed but don't want to leave it just sitting here burning up bandwidth. Holy cow........high speed is like a whole new world for me.

I don't know how we dealt with dial up for the last 10 years.

haha isn't it crazy? We finally got access to high speed out here in the country when I moved back and it does blow my mind how I could stand dial up before that. I'm gonna run do chores quick, but will be back hopefully before long. I tend to get distracted by all the cute animals. We had a bit of a surprise from one of my pygmy does, she had a single doeling that is a pale caramel out of a buck I lost this spring, and she came out prespoiled I think, so that eats up time playing with her. I also tend to sit with the chicks a lot to see what is developing. I just can't get over how much color I have on the chicks this year. Makes me very happy.

 

[pinkchick]

I have black, blue and splash birchens. How many of each I can't tell you for sure, but know that in the second hatch I probably have about 30 I held back overall and I think I've held onto about 8 in the oldest group that are coloring in nicely. This year I have both birchens and coppers with lots of color. The two black birchen cockerels in the oldest batch are pure silver so far, so I'm really hopeful for the little tykes to color in correctly. I also believe my hunch is correct on those 2 blue and 1 splash hens I bought from Anna when she sold out of birds being pure silver. I have them with a really nice type birchen with some creamy gold coloring from being a split for silver and gold and all they chicks have come out pure silver and some have no coloring yet. I'm running several pens of birchens, but will take those chicks from this mating and work on a solid blue project if I have any worth keeping. I really need to get photo updates, but just feel behind on everything all the time. I've got family coming into town next week, so will probably have to wait til they are gone at least.

I would love to see them!

 

[pinkchick]

Strike the idea of getting photos this morning......all of the birds are already out in the pasture area with the goats. Just over a month ago I turned all the birds loose out to free range. They come in at night to go to bed but then seem to be gone as early as they can the next morning. They are loving the pasture and wooded area and I will tell you that the amount of feed I have saved since I turned them loose is mind boggling.

 

[gilavina]

Strike the idea of getting photos this morning......all of the birds are already out in the pasture area with the goats. Just over a month ago I turned all the birds loose out to free range. They come in at night to go to bed but then seem to be gone as early as they can the next morning. They are loving the pasture and wooded area and I will tell you that the amount of feed I have saved since I turned them loose is mind boggling.

I agree with that. I run as many free range as I can, but those I can't I grew a huge section in the garden with all sorts of goodies for them and also they get all the foliage from the plants, like cabbage and etc. It works really well at reducing feed as well and the birds are much healthier anyways. Currently working on getting the fall garden ready to go, so should hopefully have quite a bit more room to run tons of kale, chard, etc in rows to feed thru the cooler season and even some stuff for overwintering.

 

[Dewayne441]

I have a question guys can a black cooper maran hen lay a lighter colored egg? Like the one shown below .

black copper Marans sometimes lays a lighter brown egg .

 

[dajen]

Not sure if this posted last time as I have yet to receive a response.


I have a question for those wiser than I...
I have a silver blue cock that covered my black copper and blue copper Hens. Here are two of the resulting offspring. I am concerned about the white in the wings. Will this change? Is this acceptable in either color?

 

[ashandvine]

Here is her chick pic. and her now:

Okay this is a term I haven't heard. Does it mean dark through and through? Thanks for the comparison and thanks DM for the info. I will have to see what happens here. I think Pink Chick makes a good point about developments up to sexual maturity. When raising certain breeds you HAVE to wait at least a year and sometimes two to really see what you have so the idea of culling so early for anything not a clear DQ seems a little aggressive to me.

 

[hannakat]

I spent a lot of time and then money to add FBCMs to my small back yard flock. Had 12 chicks shipped last spring. Two died over the next 2 months 3 were hens and the rest roos. Although I was told all of the breeding flock roos were nice (culled anything mean) all of the roosters eventually got rowdy. I didn't keep any of them but gave them to ppl for their flocks and have kept up with them.

One was killed by a predator. (We free range) The eggs of the other 2 eventually started having meat spots; bad enough that I stopped giving them to ppl. One started getting a swollen belly (assuming Ascites) but is still laying almost every day but the yolks are so rubbery, I now give feed those eggs to my dogs.

The last Marans apparently went broody. She disappeared and I thought her dead but she has a nest in a thick patch of ferns behind the house and we see her once a day.

I'm no longer interested in keeping Marans. The sick one will be culled and the broody hen will either be re-homed or culled. I already have 2 other broody hens and they are all going. I only have room for a small flock and having hens hatching chicks every year has really caused problems although I absolutely love watching the process.

If I had a barn or some other large accommodations, it wouldn't matter so much. Anyway...venting cause I'm so disappointed in the ones I purchased.

So, is my broody Marans a fluke or is it common for them to go broody? Ugggg... and I'm constantly worried about her and soon the chicks...never had them outside the coop/run like that.